Teaching style – broad dimension that includes:

teacher’s status, patterns of behavior, mode of

performance and attitude towards self and others.

There’s no ideal teacher’s style/type – teacher has to be flexible.

Types of teacher styles:

-authoritarian (direct) style – the teacher himself forms the objectives and takes responsibility for the group. The teacher is a kind of boss in the class. He gives directions, commands and orders which the students must comply. He often criticizes the students to change their behavior from unacceptable to acceptable. No opposition is allowed. Learners learns because they have to. They are afraid of the teacher. They rarely take over the initiative. In order to avoid punishment they may rebel. This style is recommended in teaching young children, with simple tasks and before exams.

-laissez-faire style – free development of business. It is in opposition the authoritarian style. Unorganized and ineffective. The learners got complete freedom. The teacher provides few or no goals for learning. He abuses mother tongue, corrects the learners very little or hardly at all. The students aren’t motivated. The language level is quite low and they got relatively good marks. The teacher is not a leader, he generates a lot of confusion and discipline problems may occur. This style is recommended with very good and independent learners.

-democratic (indirect) style – involves participation of everybody. Teacher encourages group participation and accepts and uses their ideas. The teacher is willing to let the students made the decisions. He praises them very often – for action, behavior, he asks a lot of questions with the time for the students to answer them. There are very few rules and very clear code of conduct. There’s no excuse of not complying them. Advantages: students’ output/results are the highest, learners become more independent, they learn more and exhibit more constructive attitude. There are fewer conflicts between teacher

Teaching style – broad dimension that includes:

and students.

-paternal (persuasive) style – the teacher try to find a kind of compromise between direct style and laissez-faire style. He always does everything for the benefit of the students. The teacher also explains what means help learners to achieve the aims – specify the values of different means. Useful – with young learners, in teaching learners who are less mature (less able) to work by themselves.

-consultative style – the teacher consults learners before making decisions. He finds out what the students needs are and takes their opinion to the account while preparing the course. It is useful when the teacher wants to develop an atmosphere of mutual respect, get to know his students well, promote cooperation with teenage groups and create positive atmosphere.

-participatory style – before making an important decision, the teacher asks the students for their opinion (students always participate). He has to analyze the decisions and generates the best one. It contributes to better contact and understanding. The pressure can be too big. It requires a group of really mature and very motivated students.

Teacher strategies – an action that the teacher takes In class to avoid conflicts and handle the class. There are two groups of strategies:

I.focused on the syllabus and coursebook

II.focused more on communication (proper classroom atmosphere)

-therapy strategy – involving learners in varieties of tasks during the whole lesson. They impose fast pace of work. Engaging on students’ work not on results. If students are engaged there’s no time for misbehavior, they are busy all the time and not bored. In case of language teaching it may not be effective. It doesn’t leave room for communicative activities.

-routine strategy – always similar ways of conducting the lessons. Children need this type of predictability. It creates safe and secure environment for them.

-withdrawal strategy – teacher takes advantage of this strategy when he don’t feel well, he ignore certain students behavior, he wait for the bell to ring.

-authority strategy – very strict. Teacher who uses this strategy seems to focus more on students appearance, how they talk. They try to use various ways of terror to avoid misbehavior and conflicts. Students may rebel openly and question the teacher’s authority. It is effective, but the teacher has to be strict/firm person and unmoved by various students’ games.

-paternal strategy – mild teachers use it. They try to maintain good relationships with the students. The students are the leaders to themselves. Such a teacher will loose respect.

-negotiation strategy – compromise between authority and paternal strategies. The teacher allows some freedom for the learners and takes their opinion to the account, however, must clearly specify what is allowed. The teacher can follow the syllabus, but on the other hand the students are cooperative. It may be applied when the teacher tries to imply his own program autorski nauczania.

Social expectations of teachers:

the headteacher:

-pays attention to the teacher’s competences

-qualifications

-how cooperative the teacher is

-how the teacher manages in contact with parents

young children:

-if the teacher is nice, friendly, cheerful, carrying

-if there is secure atmosphere

-the teacher must like children, must be inventive, imaginative, energetic, dynamic, etc.

older children:

-the teacher must be competent, nice, understanding and fair

teenagers:

-whether the teacher is a good pedagogue (teach and practice the material well)

-whether the teacher is an interesting person to talk to

-it matters if the teacher is sincere and trustful and doesn’t use that knowledge against them

parents:

-teacher must simply teach their subject well, their children must obtain the maximum “output”